Electronic news gathering (ENG) relates to the upload of news information from remote locations to a broadcast or news station. ENG can be one reporter with a simple camcorder or an entire television crew with a production/satellite truck. During ENG, audio and video data is recorded at a remote location and then transmitted to a television or news station for broadcast.
Currently, ENG can be accomplished using satellites, microwave equipment and common carrier cellular networks. For example, a vehicle may be outfitted with a satellite dish, whereby recorded news data is transmitted by the satellite dish of the ENG van to a satellite in orbit around the Earth and then to a receiving dish at a broadcast station. Similarly, a vehicle may be outfitted with a microwave transmitter, whereby recorded news data is transmitted by the microwave transmitter of the ENG van to a local microwave relay station and then to the broadcast station. Further, a vehicle may be outfitted with a cellular network transmitter, whereby recorded news data is relayed to a common carrier cellular network tower and then to the broadcast station.
However, all of the above ENG methods require the transmission of data across public frequency ranges. The use of public frequency ranges during ENG has many disadvantages, such as the broadcast company having no control over the size or scope of the network; having no control over the prioritization of data; having no control over how the data on the network is formatted or encoded; and/or reoccurring costs associated with purchasing access and bandwidth from the common carrier providers. Further, the bandwidth allocated for data transmission over a common carrier provider is controlled by the common carrier provider. Therefore, the broadcast company has no control over the amount of bandwidth allocated for their transmission, meaning the high volume data packets, such as those comprising audio/video data, may have to broken up and disseminated prior to transmission. Furthermore, during emergency situations the public frequency ranges may be occupied by multiple networks and reporters all attempting to record and upload recordings of the same event. Therefore, the network may become overloaded with traffic and the broadcast company may be unable to successfully upload the news data using the existing networks. Therefore, there is a need for an all digital, private ENG network that allows for the upload of news data to a broadcast station from a remote location in real-time. Further, there is a need for an ENG network that allows for the broadcast company to control the allocated bandwidth, as well as format, encode and prioritize the data being transmitted across the network.